Call for removal of union exemption from Brethren

The Green Party, which played a
central role in 2000 in providing the Exclusive Brethren
with an exemption from union access to their work places, is
now calling for the removal of the exemption.

"The
Exclusive Brethren, by their own actions last year when they
circulated leaflets calling for a change of government, and
their ongoing political activism, have violated the main
reason why the exemption was granted in the first place, "
Green Party Industrial Relations Spokesperson Sue Bradford
says.

"When I rose in the House in August 2000 to support
the exemption, I quoted from one of the Brethren's own
publications which stressed their avowed separation from all
groups and associations of a political, social or business
nature. At the time, I felt their separation from the world
to be a sincerely held position of conscience.

"The
Brethren's subsequent political activism - and not just in
New Zealand but in Sweden, Australia and the United States
as well - has shown them to be a highly political
organisation, actively engaged in changing the
world..

"The initial exemption had given more weight to
the apparently deeply held and scripturally based aversion
of the Exclusive Brethren to unions, than it gave to the
rights of their workers to organise.

"Given the current
evidence of the Brethren's political involvement and the
scale of their business activities, that balance must now be
re-dressed. Many workers in Brethren companies and schools
are not members of the Brethren sect, and the number of
workers involved is considerable. On 2004 figures the
Brethren operate some 800 businesses in New Zealand.

The
Brethren cannot have their cake and eat it too. They cannot
any longer claim an exemption based on their alleged
detachment from the world. Not when they are also claiming
the right to be fully engaged in that world to the extent of
spending over a million dollars on seeking to influence how
their fellow citizens cast their votes.
"

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